Embodiments of the inventive subject matter generally relate to the field of system validation and, more particularly, to validating frequency guard bands associated with processors.
A processor is generally associated with a nominal or typical operating condition (e.g., a nominal operating frequency) at which the processor is designed to operate. However, in a practical real-world environment (i.e., when the processor is deployed in a system), changes in environmental conditions (e.g., ambient temperature), aging, system glitches, load and line variations, and other such transients can result in a deviation from the nominal operating condition. For example, the operating frequency of the processor may deviate from the nominal operating frequency if the workload being executed by the processor increases. A frequency guard band associated with the processor is the amount (or uncertainty margin) by which the operating frequency of the processor can deviate from the nominal operating frequency, while reliably achieving desired performance levels.